I’ve mentioned a few times that I recently took a 6-month course at a local cooking school to increase my skills in the kitchen. When I went from vegan to omni, I was feeling out of sorts in the kitchen. I ruined too many grass-fed steaks and wild-caught fish.

It was amazing, fun, and worth every penny especially since I learned to shuck oysters! I don’t know about you, but watching that on YouTube is not as good as practicing in a class with a professional to guide you.

My dad is a chef and my mom is no stranger to the kitchen either. I’m pretty sure I get my comfort in the kitchen because of my genes. Ok, so maybe there’s some nurture going on, too, since I practice. A lot.

Back to my dad. He owned a popular restaurant in Michigan with my uncle until only a few years ago when they retired. Dad was the chef. Uncle was front of the house. Both perfectly suited to their jobs. (Mom was famous for her cheesecake and her table-side cooking, which I will share a funny story of that in the future.)

One of the things for which my dad was known was his soup making abilities. People still talk about it.

The other night I wanted to make a homemade soup with the cauliflower I had. I don’t usually relish the thought of making cauliflower to eat (roasted or steamed) but I do enjoy it in a soup. I also had some carrots and onion and homemade bone broth (i.e., stock). I teach you how to make your own bone broth easily here.

I was feeling soulful and decided that I would activate my dad’s soup-making genes in me to enhance my soup. It totally worked.

So, when he came across a recipe for a soup that contained beer in his Beer Advocate magazine, he proudly came in waving the torn out recipe in his hand. So cute. He knows how much I love cooking and here he was giving me a recipe that he found.

With beer.

I had to make it of course. How can I not encourage that participation?

I made some adjustments to suit my tastes and I present the results here. It’s wonderful and filled with deep flavors, no doubt from the beer. ;)

I just made my best soup ever. It’s chicken soup, but I added an extra step and an extra ingredient that took it to new levels of comfort and deliciousness.

Here’s the back story…

I love making super easy chicken soup, as illustrated here in a previous post. Everyone likes it, including my young daughter, but she’s not a fan of carrots. Weird, I know. She loves broccoli and brussels sprouts. But carrots? Meh… she’s not a fan.

I decided to try a trick this time. I blended the soup, which had lots of carrots. And, for extra wonderful-ness, I added a bit of heavy cream.

She loved it. Yay, cuz trying to get her to embrace carrots for their night-vision superpower wasn’t working.

We all loved it. It’s become the new chicken soup staple around this house.

In my effort to spend a little less time in the kitchen some days, I’ve come up with a nice, easy, nourishing meal that I’m calling Souped Up Soup. I take a really decent organic boxed soup and I add a bunch of stuff to it to amp up the nutrition. It’s really easy and makes a fast dinner (or lunch) when I just need to get something on the table.

Tonight’s nourishing soup recipe is a real winner: Buttered Broccoli Soup. Greg said it might be his favorite one yet. He loved its vibrant color, super soft mouth feel, and the slightly-cheesy taste even though there’s no cheese in it. Kamea gobbled up all of hers, though she wanted to drop a raw organic chocolate covered cacao nib into each Elmo spoonful. Hey, who am I to stop that? Raw chocolate and broccoli? Maybe she’s on to something here.

Personally, I’m a fan of the recipe because it combines nutrients (namely: kelp’s and broccoli’s – plus butter’s fat soluble goodies) and flavors that pair synergistically (plus its great flavor and texture). It’s especially wonderful during the cold winter months.

Cook the broccoli in a large (and deep) sauté pan (I use this one), covered, over medium heat with a few tablespoons of water added to steam/sauté it (about 8-12 min should do it). I say “medium” heat because that is the level of heat I use/need for Le Creuset enameled cast iron cookware. Alternatively, feel free to simply steam it using a pot and steamer insert. Here’s my new steamer insert I love.

While the broccoli is cooking, warm the stock in a small saucepan.

Transfer the cooked broccoli to a high speed blender and add the stock and remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth, which is best accomplished with a high speed blender.

* If you don’t have the high vitamin butter oil (which I highly recommend for concentrated fat soluble nutrients), then add another tablespoon of grassfed butter. I like the high vitamin butter oil for the boost in vitamins it offers.

Bonus recipe… see that salad next to the soup? A-mazing. It’s become a staple salad for us. Super easy to throw together on a whim. Here’s what I did…

Toss everything in a bowl and let it set for a half hour or so (covered), if possible. Otherwise just toss and serve. By waiting though, the salt works its magic on the ingredients and enhances the experience.

I really should name this recipe after my little girl, Kamea, because she loooooves it. Being a huge sweet potato fan as well as loving grass fed beef, this is right up her ally. My heart smiles when she says, “Mom, this is yummy in my tummy” or “Mom, this smells delicious!”

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Beef Stew with Paleo Bread

Here we go again with my beloved slow cooker. What can I say? It’s too dang awesome and easy to use not to have it regularly simmering away with healthy goodness.

In fact, I had planned on making this recipe after I came back home from a playdate one day. When I looked at the clock, I knew that I didn’t have to head out for the play date for another 15 minutes, so I challenged myself to throw it all together and have it cleaned up in that amount of time. That way I wouldn’t feel rushed to get home and get dinner going. That’s how easy slow cookers are. Mom, why did you never teach me about these? Turns out that I got it all done in only 11 minutes. Read that?! It took me only 11 minutes to throw together an awesome healthy dinner and have the clean up done, too. If you don’t have a slow cooker, what are you waiting for?

Plus, I adore it when I’m coming home after being gone a few hours and the heavenly smells hit you right when you step in the house. Slow Cooker food says, “Welcome Home.”

I’ve been drawn to making dishes with a minimalist mentality. I’m buying the highest quality ingredients I can find and letting them speak for themselves in my recipes, while also using as few ingredients as possible. I’m doing this for a few reasons… for starters it’s easy and less demanding of my time. It’s also less expensive because I am not incorporating as many ingredients. And, in many cases, it’s healthier.

Enter:Minimalist (aka Easiest) Slow Cooker Chicken.

Minimalist (aka Easiest) Slow Cooker Chicken

This paleo recipe took me literally minutes to put together. The slow cooker did all the work cooking all day, while I sat back and enjoyed the smells wafting through my house.

Quick delicious lunches are my kind of thing when my schedule is full or I’m just too tired to be extravagant.

Here’s a lunch I tossed together for Kamea (my 3-year old) that definitely pleased her taste buds. This made two servings, which I had planned on giving Kamea the second serving for her lunch the following day. However, I woke up and found that Greg had eaten it in the middle of the night. He said it was awesome, so all is forgiven. ;)

I’ve been getting requests to share the recipes my family is eating now that we’re no longer vegan. Of course, some vegan recipes still make appearances, but we’re getting nourished by plenty of omnivore recipes, too. For those of you who haven’t heard, my family is no longer vegan (read about it here).

Velvety Lemon Butter Cauliflower Soup

I tell ya… one big word comes to mind when I step back and think of the changes we’ve made: Peace. I have peace of mind now that my family is getting most everything we need from a combo of both plant and high quality animal products, and it’s fairly effortless. I used to worry quite a bit during Kamea’s second year if she was getting what she needed and intuitively I felt she wasn’t, but at the time, I just wasn’t ready to entertain the idea of animal products.